MUD OR LOAM IN ALL THE GERMAN CAVES. 
109 
But they had, many of them, overlooked the fact of the occurrence of 
pebbles in the earthy sediment, and the no less important feature of 
there being but one stalagmitic crust incumbent upon the mud; and 
they had ventured to offer no reasonable conjecture, as to the time or 
manner of the introduction of these earthy materials, or their re¬ 
lations to the period in which the caverns were inhabited ; these 
desiderata I am now enabled to supply on my own authority, having 
conducted my observations with a careful regard to a comparison of 
the phenomena of these caverns, with those that occur in England *. 
The caverns themselves are composed of a succession of vaulted 
chambers, communicating with each other by long and narrow pass¬ 
ages, ascending and descending irregularly through limestone rocks 
* De Luc has described in the following words, the matrix in which the bones are 
lodged in the cave, at Scharzfeld: “ Le fait est done simplement, que le sol de ces 
caverns est d’une terre calcaire, qu’en creusant cette couche molle, on en tire quantity de 
fragmens d’os, etqu’il s’y trouve aussi des concretions pierreuses qui renferment des os.”— 
De Luc, Lettres, Vol. IV. p. 590. 
Leibnitz, also, in his description of this cavern, has the following passage to the same 
purpose, “ Limo nigricante vel fusco infectum est solum.”—Leibnitz, Protogsea, p. 65. 
Esper thus describes the state of the floor near the entrance of one of the largest 
caverns at Gailenreuth. “ Dans toute la conferee, le terrain est marneux, mele avec du 
limon, et tire sur le jaune, mais ici on trouve une terre moins limoneuse dansune profon- 
deur considerable.”—Esper, p. 9- 
Rosenmuller, speaking generally of the same subject, says, “ Ces fragmens se 
trouvent assez souvent deposes dans une terre brunatre argileuse ou marneuse, comme 
dans les cavernes pres de Gailenreuth au Zahnloch, et dans les cavernes du Hartz.” It 
is also stated, that a sediment of mud was found on the sides and floor of a cave, at 
Glucksbrun, in the Thuringerwald, near Meinungen, when it was newly opened in cutting 
a road in 1799 ; and that in other caverns also there is mud. In all the above quotations, 
the fact of the mud is clearly stated, but no satisfactory attempt is made to offer any ex¬ 
planation as to its origin. My own observations in 1822 enable me now to speak with 
more confidence and precision on this subject than I could do on the authority of 
others. 
